In recent years, in this industry, silver halide photographic material that can be processed rapidly and high in image quality have been desired.
In the development processing of silver halide photographic materials, generally, such materials are continuously processed by an automatic processor installed in a photofinishing laboratory. And, as a part of service to users, it is demanded that the silver halide photographic material be subjected to development processing and returned to the user on the day the material is received. Further, currently it is even demanded that such material be returned to the user within one hour after its receipt, which means that the need for rapid processing is being heightened increasingly. Further, since shortening of the processing time improves the production efficiency and enables the cost to be reduced, the development of rapid processing is urgently required.
Under these circumstances, it is known that the shape, size, and composition of silver halide grains in silver halide emulsions used in photographic materials influence greatly, for example, the rate of development. It is also known that the influence of the halogen composition is great, and a noticeably high rate of development is exhibited particularly when a silver halide high in silver chloride content is used.
Further, in recent years, in view of the protecting the environment and the reducing the burden of labor for the preparation of color developers, it is desired that the color developer be free from benzyl alcohol. Further, although sulfites, which are used as an antioxidant, for example, for the developing agent in a color developer, react with the oxidized product of the color developing agent, they also react with couplers competitively, thereby lowering the density of the image. Therefore, it is also desired that sulfites not be contained in a color developer because, for example, when the amount of the sulfite in a color developer changes, the density of the color-formed dye changes accordingly.
Taking the above conditions into consideration, lately, a method for processing using a color developer substantially free from benzyl alcohol and sulfites by using a silver halide high in silver chloride content has been put into practice, as disclosed, for example, in International Patent WO No. 87-04534.
On the other hand, with respect to the image quality, further improvement in sharpness is expected, for example, in order to make the fullest use of the function of color negative film or to meet various exposure systems resulting from enlarged applications of color prints. Particularly in the latter, in recent years, high sharpness is demanded for the purpose of reproducing, in addition to common photographic images, images that require high contrast in narrow areas, such as figures, characters, and letters.
In order to increase the sharpness of images, water-soluble dyes are generally used in color photographic materials. This is described, for example, in JP-A ("JP-A" means unexamined published Japanese patent application) No. 283336/1987, and in Research Disclosure (RD) Nos. 17643 (page 22, December 1978) and 18716 (page 647, November 1979).
A method for increasing the sharpness of images is described in JP-A No. 286849/1988 wherein the optical reflection density is brought to a certain density or over when a colorant, such as an antihalation layer (AH), is used that comprises a water-soluble dye, colloidal silver, or a dispersion of a solid dye, which colorant can be decolored with development processing.
If the amount of such a water-soluble dye or the number of antihalation layers to be used for increasing the sharpness of images is increased excessively, the rapid processing mentioned above brings about an increase of the remaining amount of the dye and the like after the processing, thereby lowering the whiteness, which is a serious problem, and therefore there is a limit to the usable amount of the dye.
As another method for increasing the sharpness of images, a method is known wherein the optical reflectance in the vicinity of the surface of a support is increased. For example, JP-B ("JP-B" means examined Japanese patent publication) No. 53937/1982 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,002 disclose methods wherein a hydrophilic colloid layer containing a white pigment in a high-filling amount is placed between a polyolefin-covered support and a photographic emulsion layer. However, these methods are accompanied by a significant defect in that the drying rate drops because the overall thickness of the hydrophilic colloid layers increases, and therefore these methods are not desirable.
Methods for increasing the content of a white pigment to be filled in a water-resistant resin are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,345 and JP-A No. 156452/1991. Methods for incorporating a large amount of a white pigment in a water-resistant resin do not result in the harmful effect of the above-mentioned methods that provide a hydrophilic colloid layer. However, in a generally used polyolefin water-resistant resin, when the content of a white pigment is increased, a problem arises that the smoothness and the surface gloss decrease. Therefore, there is need for development of a method for increasing the content of a white pigment in a water-resistant resin without deteriorating these performances.
EP-057489A describes a method wherein a polyester is used as a water-resistant resin, disclosing that the smoothness and surface gloss are high. However, the present inventors have prepared, in accordance with EP-0507489A, a support, on which in turn photographic constitutional layers are applied, and they have investigated the photographic performance. As a result, the inventors have found that, although the smoothness and gloss are high, there is a defect in that the change in density due to a change in duration from the moment of exposure to light until the development processing, is apt to increase if the photographic material, in the form of a product prepared by applying photographic constitutional layers, is stored for a long period of time. When this happens, the work of so-called test printing by which exposure conditions, such as exposure time and filter balance, are determined, is seriously hindered, such that productivity can be lowered.